Tales from the Crypt Reboot Is Dead Says M. Night Shyamalan

Sorry, horror fans. It looks like M. Night Shyamalan's highly-anticipated reboot of Tales from the Crypt is truly dead in the water. Last we heard, even though there are very complicated rights issues related to the franchise, the producers were doing their best to sort things out to everyone's mutual satisfaction. Unfortunately, it just doesn't appear to be in the cards and now Shyamalan is, admittedly, throwing in the towel. This one is even more dead than the Crypt Keeper, sad to say.

We hadn't heard any updates on the reboot for some time and M. Night Shyamalan has been busy filming Glass, his upcoming sequel to Unbreakable and Split. So he hasn't had time to focus on Tales From the Crypt at all, nor has he been able to provide any updates. In a recent interview, the filmmaker has finally given us an update, but it's the opposite of what horror lovers wanted to hear. According to Shyamalan himself who had been shepherding the project throughout the development process at TNT, it's dead. Here's what he had to say about it.

"I think it's dead. We tried everything that we could. That was so mired in people that had rights to it... constantly mired from the original comic books to the people that did the original show and that was a very contentious era for that show and who was involved and all the stuff that had nothing to do with me, a generation before me. I begged them, 'Please just give me the rights, we'll do it this way, you're going to be really happy'. But it didn't work out that way and here we are."

As these things often do, the problem seems to be centered on money and who is entitled to said money. Originally, Tales From the Crypt started as a comic book published by EC Comics in the 1950s. Then HBO brought it to life with their anthology series that aired from 1989 to 1996. The series spawned two movies, Demon Knight and Bordello of Blood. All of the live-action versions were hosted by the Crypt Keeper, a creation that has only served to complicate the messy rights issues associated with the franchise. Ultimately, TNT just wasn't able to work this all out with who it needed to be worked out with.

Horror fans are really losing out here, as Tales From the Crypt was set to be part of an entire night of horror-themed programming on TNT, which would have featured a new original anthology horror series as well, in addition to whatever else the network had yet to reveal. For his part, M. Night Shyamalan seems genuinely disappointed that things didn't get worked out and, given his recent track record on the big screen with movies like The Visit and Split, it seems like he could have been the perfect guy to bring the show back to life. Oh well. At least we've got that reboot of The Twilight Zone with Jordan Peele to look forward to, right? This news was first reported by Digital Spy.

Writer of various things on the internet (mostly about movies) since 2013. Major lover of popcorn flicks. Avid appreciator of James Bond, Marvel and Star Wars. Has a tremendously fat cat named Buster and still buys CDs. I’ve got my reasons.